New York, Jan 10 Growth in China remained solid throughout 2017 and its growth slowdown was well managed, the World Bank (WB) has said.
China’s trade flows recovered markedly in 2017, with tighter enforcement of capital flow management.
It “helped ease capital outflows and exchange rate pressures and reverse a reduction in foreign reserves,” WB said in its report “Global Economic Prospects” published on Tuesday.
In the latest report, the bank forecast China’s annual economic growth in 2017 at 6.8 per cent, a two-basis point increase on its forecast six months ago, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Currently the growth slowdown in China is very well managed. It is very steady and gradual and the authorities have managed to calibrate it properly,” Franziska Lieselotte Ohnsorge, manager of development prospects group at WB said.
“Reserves are high, government debt is manageable especially compared with advanced economies,” said Ohnsorge, who is one of the lead authors of the report of the bank which is headquartered in Washington D.C.
Threats to economic stability are being tackled, said Ohnsorge. “The authorities have already taken a lot of regulatory steps to cool housing markets, to slowly unwind financial vulnerabilities.”
“We see the same risk as in other emerging markets, slower than expected growth,” she added.
“But the authorities still have ample buffers to absorb or to mitigate any big shock,” she noted.
Ohnsorge forecasts that annual GDP growth in China would be between six and 6.5 per cent over the next decade.
